20120331

I was recently introduced to a new piece of research by the GAMMZ team. This is the "Collins Scale of Questionability;" a semantic exercise to identify and label levels of subjective social inappropriateness. While there are, within legitimate use of this tool, objective indica (it is, after all, behaviorally based); the tool best operates when applied to the subjectively precieved questionability of observed behavior. Here is the scale:

Interesting

Strange

Awkward

Fishy

Shady

Sketchy

Creepy

Stalker-ish

Crazy

The scale ranges from light to extreme questionability.
Note that it is tempting to see the phenomena of questionability in a linear and continuous movement. One of the key insights from the GAMMZ team is that the range of questionability seems to operate in a discrete manner. The phenomena, in movement, is quantum-like in nature with observed behaviors instantaneously jumping from one level to another - occasionally skipping one or more levels in a single state change leap.

It should also be noted that questionability (of necessity) is a sociological phenomena in that it requires the norms of a group to operate, as well as the observation by a group to be recognized. There is the additional characteristic in that questionable behavior, once introduced into a group system, can become both contagious, and from that contagion, escalate to greater levels of questionability. Furthermore, the individual(s) engaging in questionable behavior is/are frequently observed to escalate their behavior upon the recognition by the larger group of the specific behavior as belonging to one of the levels of questionability.

I would like to thank the GAMMZ team for their work and insights in publishing this important research. The GAMMZ team involved in this research consists of: